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Consumers could face broadband issues on Christmas day

Cable.co.uk, one of the UK’s leading broadband comparison groups, has warned that the expected increase in network connected devices on Christmas day could lead to a network standstill over the holidays.

Cable.co.uk asked 2000 customers and discovered that a surge of new internet-enabled devices going online at the same time could put a lot of stress on domestic broadband connections.

They found that on December 25 2015, 54% of households will permanently add at least one internet-enabled device to their home network. Despite this prediction, only 43% of consumers have switched to a more suitable and larger broadband package in the past 12 months.

Sharing at Christmas can be a bad idea

A family’s broadband connection will likely be put under even more stress when they decide to have guests round – who will in turn bring their smart phones and recently received internet enabled devices with them and connect to the wifi.

Media sharing with friends, downloading add-ons for computer games and live video streaming are higher at Christmas than at any other day of the year – with users streaming nearly 3 hours of content a day (up 8% last year).

Dan Howdle, a broadband expert, has advised users to focus less on fairy lights interfering with wifi, and focus more on speed, device capacity and usage limits.